Fuel prices up 11%

Oct. 18, 2016, 9:20 a.m.

THE Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana has said its monitoring of fuel prices suggests an increase of between 8 and 11% effective October 16, 2016.

“Diesel prices have seen an increase of between 8 and 11% on current ex pump prices while petrol prices have seen between 3 and 5% across most Bulk Oil Distribution Companies (BDCs) and Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs)”, statement from the Chamber said.

It was however quick to add that the figures are yet to reflect directly at the various pumps.

“The current increases are largely attributed to the sharp increases on the world market prices as the cedi has been relatively stable over the past two weeks,” the chamber said

Duncan Duncan Amoah, Executive Secretary of the Chamber who signed the statement remind the government on the urgent need to review and reduce the levels of taxes on petroleum products as it has done for both aviation fuel and marine gas oil products recently.

“We also implore the national petroleum authority (NPA) to immediately halt the arbitrary fines without any verification process on the various oil marketing companies.

“The issue of petroleum products marketing scheme and it's enforcement as it is currently, leaves a lot to be desired and simply gives room for arbitrariness on the part of the regulator, an urgent review of the workings of the PPMS has become necessary due to the manner in which its being implemented against the various OMCs currently.

“Lastly we reiterate our call on the Ghana standards authority (GSA) to review the most recent review it carried out after the public outrage on the dirty diesel research, Ghanaians cannot continue to suffer 17,000 infections annually due to our poor standards only for a review to further accept another poor grade using the Tema oil refinery as a shield.

“Ghanaians demand nothing than the cleaner 10ppm products and not the 500ppm as is being considered currently for 2017,” it added.